Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation Programme which was launched in 2014 and will continue for a period of 7 years (2014-2020) with an overall budget of nearly €80 billion.

The goal of Horizon 2020 is to simplify the access to EU funding by merging funding previously provided through the EU Seventh Framework Program (FP7), with innovation–related activities of Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Horizon 2020 is open to everyone and thus participants are strongly encouraged to consider and tackle Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues as soon as possible during the preparation of the proposal draft by being familiar with the specific intellectual property related rules applicable to their call. IPR issues can affect both the way a project is conducted and the exploitation of the Results which are generated in the project. Furthermore, IPR issues may affect Yeda’s ability to commercialize your existing IP. Accordingly, it is extremely important that you discuss with us all IPR related issues related to the grant.

The purpose of the grant preparation stage is to refine the scientific and technical details of the project and to agree on them for the final signature of the Grant Agreement (GA). However, before the signature of the GA, the European Commission requires the consortium to prepare and sign a Consortium Agreement (CA), which is mandatory for the entirety of the Horizon 2020 funding schemes, unless it is differently specified in the work Programme or work plan or the call for proposals.

The CA is complementary to the GA and preliminary to its final signature, and thus IP provisions that are not included therein will fall back to the common regime provided in the GA. The CA deals with the rights and obligations between the beneficiaries themselves and covers issues related to exploitation, dissemination and access rights about project results and Background IP (pre-existing IP), additional to commitments under the GA. Within the CA project the partners have the obligation to create a positive list envisaging the Background IP to be brought to the project as well as their wish to exclude access to their Background.

In order to safeguard the rights and interests in your existing IP that is not relevant to the project, it is essential that you get in touch with Yeda at the Proposal Stage (From publication of the call for proposals until the deadline for submission of the proposal).